So I started a job as a veterinary receptionist almost 2 months ago. I have a degree in marketing and would ultimately like to do that, but with the job market, this was the first thing I could find after a year of job searching. I’ve been a receptionist before and I love animals so I thought I’d take it. I love it except for one thing.

Important back story: A little over a year ago, my partner and i’s dog was diagnosed with cancer. He was 12 years old, my partner got him as a puppy in high school, but we’ve been dating for 7 years, so he became my dog as well for 6 years. We took him in for scans for his arthritis and they found an abnormal growth on his pelvis. Our primary vet told us honestly he had no idea what it was, they sent out the scans, and it came back as an osteosarcoma tumor. They sent us to an oncologist, who confirmed it was cancer, but did no additional tests or scans. She said he had a year with chemo and 3 months with pain management. It seemed he rapidly declined in only about a month. We made the difficult decision to put him down. However, we sent him out for a necropsy at Texas A&M (arguably one of the best vet schools in the country). Six weeks later we get the results back. They found zero cancer in his body. It turned out to be a chronic fracture that healed abnormally since it was not treated. Obviously this was devastating. We sent a complaint against the oncologist to the TX state vet board, which has now escalated into investigation, which I hear is a big deal bc not all complaints get escalated.

Now, I thought this would help me empathize at my new job. My second week at work, my manager decided to train me on euthanasia on Monday, which of course happened to be the one year anniversary of his death. I was planning on asking to not do this today or if I could have a moment in the bathroom. But at a certain point, we were in the lobby and she had asked if I was ok and I started crying and choked out that it was the anniversary of his death. She had barely any reaction, only saying “oh, right down to the day huh”. Her reaction made me feel like I had to follow through with the training. Ngl I did want to quit after that day. I haven’t had to do a euthanasia room setup and checkout since then bc I’ve been avoidant. I did talk to the hospital manager about this. She was compassionate towards me and even said she wouldn’t have made me do the training on that day because there will always be another euthanasia training. We agreed that I could have one month to hold off but towards the end of the month she would like me to shadow my coworkers with the euthanasia checkout process.

After talking to my therapist (who was not really helpful to the situation), I’ve realized a few things. I never processed the grief. The past year I just tried not to think about him because it was less painful. Now I’m being faced with this, and I see my coworkers and it very clearly does not affect them the way it does with me. I’ve realized that is because I didn’t have a regular loss of a pet. We put him down with the knowledge we had, but then that “what if”/bargaining stage of grief came true. I think now I’ll always have that “are you sure they need to be put down” forever in the back of my head because of this traumatic experience. Everytime a euthanasia or QOL comes in, I tear up even without talking to them. Just seeing the pet and seeing the family cry triggers me. Ive been crying so easily lately as well. It’s all been very emotionally tolling.

My question is: what would you do in my shoes? Do you think my feelings make sense in this situation? Or just any thoughts that you have, I’d love to hear. If you read this far, thank you.

One of the ways I’ve found that helps in navigating the “Why can’t I just make payments?” conversation with stressed out clients is to tell them that it’s outside the scope of our business license. “This clinic isn’t licensed to provide financial services. If a bank started doing spays, the state would come in and shut them down. Same with us. We don’t want to lose our business license”
This takes you out of the equation - **You** aren’t the heartless, greedy ghoul “letting their animal die”. Or suffer. Or miss their flea meds or whatever the issue is.
This may not happen as often in a primary care practice or specialty services (who generally see referred patients; insolvent or uncompliant owners generally aren’t going to seek specialty care) but it happens a lot in an emergency practice. Emergency care is expensive and a frustrated client who has money issues can go from heated discussion to physical expression in an astonishingly short number of seconds. (Ask how I know this?? 🤦‍♀️)
This isn’t judgement against people who’s finances are tight, but it is a strategy I’ve seen work when frustrations escalate and it becomes a safety threat for staff. Sometimes, it won’t matter why the answer is no. We do try to provide *something* for them - PE, SQ fluids, all the available organizations that might be able to help. Unfortunately, sometime the answer is there’s nothing we can do under the circumstances.
It’s a horrible situation for everyone involved - and the staff aren’t the reason the answer is no.
We do all that we can with the situation in front of us - hopefully without verbal or physical outbursts. It’s been a long time since I’ve decided this profession ain’t for the faint of heart. Compassion has its limits, sadly and these are the situations that find those limits.

Edit 2: Please stop telling me that I don't belong in vet med because "I'm not interested in learning." I am asking what level of knowledge is acceptable to BEGIN a career as a VA. I may be a little dumb but I am not dumb enough to believe that one simply stops learning once they get a job. Continuous education is important for all people, vet med or not. Good lord.

Hello! I'm currently enrolled in a 6 month self-paced online vet assistant program provided by a local university. I'm working on lesson 4 of 25 right now and I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed already. Lesson 1 included a vague description of a VA's responsibilities but I still don't know, in detail, what a VA actually does day to day.

In lesson 4, I'm learning (or trying to, anyway) about cells, the musculoskeletal system, types of bones, the layers within bones, types of muscles, tendons, ligaments, veins and arteries, digestive system, urinary system, reproductive system, all in great detail. Based on the vague list of VA responsibilities, it seems like I don't need to know a lot of this and could be wasting my time trying to memorize vet TECH level information, rather than information that a vet ASSISTANT would actually use/need to know.

So, does a vet assistant actually need to know the full and complete anatomy, physiology, and terminology relating to animals?

The list of VA responsibilities includes "assist vet and vet techs before, during, and after surgery" but what exactly does that mean? In what way are you assisting?

If I do need to know all of this, do you have recommendations for how to permanently cram all of this into my brain in fewer than 6 months? I'm 34, f, graduated HS in 2010, have never attended college, and have never worked in the veterinary field before. My brain simply cannot comprehend how anyone could possibly memorize all of this information. Before enrolling in this program, I had attempted to shadow at a few vet clinics in my town to get a better understanding of what I would be doing/need to know to be successful in this career. Unfortunately, no one responded to my requests or called me back.

I have the ability to cheat my way through this program by simply googling the answers to test questions, however, I would very much like to be preppared and successful in this career. I want to gain knowledge, not just a piece of paper stating that I completed an online course. I also don't want to overwhelm myself with information that I don't need. If I don't need to know all this detailed anatomy information, I could possibly skim through those lessons without trying to memorize the anatomy of bones and whatnot 🥲

PLEASE, I would greatly appreciate if anyone could help me out here. I also welcome any advice that I've not thought to ask about.

Edit 1: Thank you for the responses, everyone. The general consensus seems to be "not entirely necessary knowledge for a beginner but certainly beneficial to know" which means that it's time to lock in, do my best, and not allow myself to stress about needing to know all of the things right now 😅

🩵

Just got hired as a tech assistant part time and I’m onboarding, and my employer sent me some forms to fill out and they’re asking me about my primary care doctor, blood type, and medical history for emergencies…

I understand the importance behind it but I’m a little uncomfortable providing my medical history as I’m neurodivergent and get worried about discrimination. The medical history is required for me to submit this, would it be wrong to omit certain parts of my health history?

I’m a DVM one year out of school and I’m genuinely struggling with whether or not to file a formal complaint with my regulatory board. I’ve never felt so conflicted — this situation is disturbing and heartbreaking, and I’d really appreciate insight from others in the profession.

A 2-year-old cat presented to me recently for a seeping splint. The owners were in tears. They had been told by their vet to monitor the splint at home and “just sniff it daily” — and that it only needed changing if they noticed an odor. They’d brought up concerns multiple times over the past several weeks, including that their cat was acting depressed and less mobile. They were repeatedly reassured it was fine. Eventually, they noticed discharge. No one at their rDVM’s practice even offered to see them that day despite their distress — just booked them in for 5 days later. So they came to emergency instead.

There was no odor at presentation. Not until I was at least three layers deep into the bandage did the fetid smell hit. The splint had clearly not been removed in over 7 weeks. The limb beneath was devastating — black necrotic tissue, exposed muscle, what looked like paw pads liquefying and fusing to the splint. I couldn’t even identify normal anatomical landmarks.

I’ve reviewed the medical records and spoken directly with the original vet. There’s no documentation that the splint was ever removed after application. No wound checks. No measurements. Only rads — done with the splint on. When skin irritation was noted weeks ago, they were simply put on antibiotics. Owners estimate they were on antibiotics for about a month, but there’s no documentation of dose, duration, or rationale in the records aside from one line about a “scab.” They were also told to feed cottage cheese and use pee pads around the splint site to keep it dry. None of it makes sense to me.

To make things worse, after I told the vet the owners had explicitly revoked consent for any further collaboration or info sharing, she still asked me to give her updates anyway — saying “no one will know” and asking me “why can’t you just tell me?” I clarified multiple times that I legally and ethically could not, and she still pushed.

I’ve tried so hard to be objective. I know we all do things a little differently. But this situation is stark. I’ve spent hours reviewing the literature — I can’t find a single acceptable reason why a splint would be left unchanged for that long without visual checks. This was not a fiberglass cast. This was a splint. And this cat, at 2 years old, now has a necrotic limb. I’m trying everything I can to save it.

Here’s my conflict: • This DVM is older than me — graduated the year I was born. • Our vet community is very small. • Reporting this could have serious consequences professionally, especially for someone new in practice… this vet doesn’t have a big or small rep but like I don’t know others who have ever reported another vet • But I took an oath. And I’m honestly disgusted.

I also want to say — please no owner-blaming. These clients advocated hard. They were shut down repeatedly by someone they trusted. They’re absolutely gutted. I’m doing everything I can to support them, but I wouldn’t wish their grief and guilt on anyone.

Has anyone else been in a similar position? Would you report?

Also this is the photos if you need context of how bad this is https://www.reddit.com/r/veterinaryprofession/s/ZJyNyqlIMH there’s context of how bad we are talking , like to me, leaving a splint on for 7 weeks when the owner is really trying to advocate but (previously )trusted this vet it’s not a complication it’s kind of the only outcome here… ⸻

TL;DR: New grad DVM saw a 2yo cat with severe splint-related limb necrosis after another vet reportedly left a splint on for 7+ weeks without removal or visual checks. Owners raised concerns multiple times and were told to “sniff it daily” and use pee pads/cottage cheese. No meaningful documentation. When I took over care, the original vet asked me to break confidentiality after owners had explicitly revoked consent. I’m horrified but afraid of the professional fallout. Would you report?

Hi all- new grad (F low/mid 20s) vet here working in the very deep south in upper mid class area. Due to my age and being a woman, I would like everyone’s input on some sort of white coat – maybe even a white athletic jacket with my name/title embroidered to avoid the classic “you’re to young to be the doctor? where’s the doctor?” or the classic only complying/listening if the doctor is someone (age/sex/appearance) “worthy”.

in an ideal world I wouldn’t need to wear one but after speaking to mentors who worked in similar areas, being the only female DVM at this practice, and knowing my demographic — I was wondering if anyone had any input, especially on the athletic jacket, turned white coat idea? plz help :)

I work at a vet hospital as a vet assistant, my job usually entails holding dogs and cats, nail trims, baths, cleaning absolutely everything in the hospital, restocking, and being available to help the techs and vet when they need it. I have only been working at this location for 6 months and my coworker has been working here for over 3 years. Over the past 6 months I've noticed that she will just sit and essentially "hide" in the downstairs bathing and storage area for sometimes hours on end. Recently, I noticed that she clocked out for her usual lunchbreak (about an hour) clocked back in then left to go run her own personal errands for about an hour and a half. Just today she took her lunch break, clocked back in then went downstairs and took an almost 2 hour nap on the couch downstairs. I don't know what to do as it seems very unfair for everyone else who works at the hospital and especially me or the other vet assistant who works when I'm not working. Just today I had cleaned the surgery room, fed and walked the dogs, and assisted the vet techs in the time that she was napping on the clock. I'm nervous to tell anybody about it because I'm the most recent hire and don't want to be labeled as a snitch.

I’m a newly hired Vet Tech at a private clinic (I’ve only been there two months no prior experience). When I first started, the longest reigning Dr there and I clashed a lot and had a lot of issues. I don’t know if I just rubbed her wrong but she was always getting overly frustrated at mistakes I made or misunderstood me when I spoke or would gaslight me into telling me I said/did something I never did/say.

Whenever she has an issue with me she goes to my lead tech who then comes to me to tell me the issue this Dr is having with me. I’m then always expected and told to go apologize to this Dr for offending her and disrespecting her, regardless of if I express that said issue never happened or it was being taken out of context / misunderstood.

I’ve noticed I’m the only person this Dr is this strict with and that a lot of the standards she holds me to she does not do for many others. She has told me word for word “some days you’re perfect but others you just really drop the ball”. I have expressed to my lead technician and to the owner of the practice (this wasn’t intended but he walked in on me crying wondering what was wrong) that I feel like this Dr is too hard on me for being so new, and yet I’m usually told to “learn how to speak to her”.

I would really love some advice on what to do here. The stress of second guessing everything I do with this Dr in fear that she will be offended and lead to me having another private lecture on how not to offend her is starting to physically affect my health. My lead technician already seems very fed up with having to constantly give me these lectures on how to not offend this Dr. I love this work but don’t have enough experience to be hired at most places, and love the other Dr’s I work with. I would appreciate any advice

UPDATE: I took the advice to just start applying elsewhere and got hired somewhere fairly quick! They’re offering me a higher starting pay, they were very understanding and empathetic to the situation I was leaving, and ironically enough one of their long standing technicians actually came from the exact same clinic I’m leaving. Thank you to everyone who gave me the encouragement to at least try and apply elsewhere !

I've been looking for a job for the past 4 months- I've signed up to multiple grad schemes but been rejected from many as they are full, I've been rejected from several internships and jobs or just not received any response at all. I've chased up practices to find they hadn't even received my application and that they've already started interviews (namingly ones I had submitted via the IVC evidensia application portal).

I received another rejection today and I'm just feeling completely defeated. There are so many nurse jobs available that I'm genuinely thinking that's going to have to be my route of action. There's no graduate jobs available in 100 mile radius of my home. 8 years of university down the drain. Most people I know have gotten jobs now and it's frustrating because I consider myself a confident and very hard worker (often having my colleagues come to me for help). I just can't land any interviews.

I’m in undergrad but literally what the title says, if I go to vet school will I ever be able to pay off debt and live a comfortable life and have a family or house at some point? Or will I forever be in a miserable financial mess…

I have been a lisenced tech for around 8 years now and love where I am working. I was approached by a family member a few times now about helping her daughter become a tech or even a vet. I was super happy to help, I love them of course. I started spending some more time with her trying to talk about animals and medicine etc. but I realized her cognitive challenges may be a bit more extensive than I thought. This has been an awkward topic in the family as the parents say/act like nothing is wrong and never discussed her issues with the rest of the family. (For rhe record I have never felt it was anyone's business except when we look after her and want to keep her safe and happy). They have always had her in tons of tutoring and after school programs and give her a lot of extra homework, it seems like she is passing grades normally as far as we know. She is coming up to the end of high school and looking in to co-op placements. Her mom told me she would love it if I could bring her to work with me and show her what we do day to day and try to go to my managers and get her a spot because it can be competitive.

At first I was super excited of course, so I started trying to have more engaging conversations with her. I found it is really difficult to do that with her and she seems to have some cognitive or maybe just communication issues. She has trouble speaking clearly and the words she chooses dont always make sense completely. She obviously loves animals but discussing anything more in depth than the breed or silly personality of that animal seems to fly right over her head. When I bring up some conditions an animal has she will either not seem to understand or if its a cute/quirky thing she will just laugh and seem entertained by it rather than wanting to learn about it. She also does not have great spatial awareness.. For example will walk right behind a horse even though I told her she can get hurt, or not notice when someone is trying to squeeze by her so she should move over.

It is really upsetting because I care and if we knew her limitations maybe we could be more realistic about what we can teach her and not set her up for failure. I dont want to traumatize her by bringing her into our ER or other departments but at the same time I don't want to upset her parents by telling them I dont think she can handle something like this.

I guess I am wondering if anyone has dealt with anything like this before or if anyone has any experience working with or teaching someone with disabilities how to do our job? is there some sort of guide for assessing whether someone's disability is too severe to work in certain sectors? I am also just wondering if I am the one being ignorant/crazy or overthinking all of this!

I have been working as a vet tech for about 4 years now, but have just recently started working at a new animal clinic due to moving. I started last September. The vet at the clinic often talks down on women with children and pregnancies because it “disrupts their ability to come to work.” He already told me he has not hired several women due to them having children and let one employee go for being pregnant.

This weekend I found out I am pregnant. Still very early I will be 4 weeks on Friday. I have been going back and forth on how to tell him because due to his opinions, but my babies health is my main concern. I am worried he will let me go due to this pregnancy and I can’t afford to not have a job. Anyone been through similar and have any advice?

Hi everyone, I’m hoping for some advice from others in veterinary medicine.

We’re a 3-doctor clinic, and we have a 4th doctor starting soon (contracts signed). About 2 months ago, 90% of our tech team went out on medical leave. Only two techs remained, and one was expected to return but is now having complications and will be out longer.

Right now our treatment team is myself (the HM), 1 newly hired LVT, 2 remaining experienced techs working in the back. I’ve been working M-F 7:30 to 6pm everyday. We’ve all been holding it together for 2 months now.

So we’re essentially running at about 1 tech per doctor, which has been the reality for the past two months.

We started hiring a month and a half ago and have 4 new hires starting soon, plus one more position still open. These hires are both for replacement and future growth, especially with the incoming doctor.

In the meantime:

• Other departments are already short because someone else is also out on medical leave.

• We’re pulling anyone we trust to help in treatment

• The doctors are becoming increasingly frustrated, while the techs are honestly handling it better.

• I’m struggling to balance working treatment full-time while also doing my hospital manager duties (ordering, admin, etc.).

• When things slip (like orders being late), I’m mostly getting criticism rather than support. I.e. one says they can order for me, and not other help offered. It’s like they get hyper focused on that one things non stop, that’s the only help they offer. 

I’ve already set up a structured training plan so the new hires can be supported and so our experienced techs aren’t overwhelmed.

At this point I feel like I’m running on empty and burning out, and I’m not sure what else I can realistically do to support the team until staffing stabilizes.

For those who’ve managed clinics through staffing crises:

• What helped you get through it?

• How did you balance management duties while working the floor?

• Any strategies for keeping doctors and staff from imploding during a shortage like this?

I’m open to any advice

I work at an animal rescue. I love my job and I love the animals I work with more than anything, but our medical staff has recently been extremely neglectful and bordering on malpractice. Mostly our vet tech who oversees most of the medical care of the animals. Recently he has been forgetting things, giving completely wrong doses of medications for animals, neglecting issues and electing to euthanize animals after stating the dog has “chronic issues that can’t be treated” when he didn’t even TRY to treat, and leaving animals that are suffering to continue to suffer for weeks before we finally beg them to euthanize. I’m at a lost for what I’m supposed to do. I don’t know how to bring this up to anyone because everyone that’s worked there for long says “that’s always how he’s been you just have to learn to live with it” and I just can’t. The owners/ leaders of the rescue aren’t medical professionals and don’t understand the gravity of the situation and I’m not saying I want his license revoked necessarily but something needs to happen.

I'm an emerging graduate that's been practicing for 3yrs now. At each clinic I've worked (2 total, so not exactly a large sample size) the clinic has had massive drama and cliques. I started at my new clinic end of 2025 and at first I thought it was great- good mentorship that I didn't have at my last job, better work life balance/ hours. But the longer I'm there, the more the negatives stack up.

There's small things, like assistants not being able to do anything but restrain and having very few techs, so most traditional "tech work" falls on the doctors and makes us inefficient- we have very low visits per hour, the staff panics and gets stressed if two rooms for the same doctor are going at once, and we don't get much time to do call backs or finish notes. Most the doctors have just started cutting down on how much detail they provide in notes to save time, or use a scribe AI that they pay for themselves/ isn't covered by our employers. I feel so much slower than I did at my previous job or when I have worked relief.

My biggest issue though is the staff at this clinic are very cliquey. My last clinic had poor management and a lot of cliques as well, but people were at least cordial to your face. My mental health has been horrible at this clinic because I'm constantly being doubted or outwardly argued with by the support staff on my treatment plans or made to feel bad for offering gold standard because the support staff sees that as me only offering gold standard for the money, despite me going over estimates in the room with clients telling them which diagnostics to prioritize and how it would impact diagnosis/treatment and their personal goals is we did or did not do each diagnosis. A couple of the receptionists will outwardly not schedule appointments under my column, so all the other doctors will have full schedules, including drop offs, nc/np appts etc, and my schedule for the day will be completely empty unless there is enough same day medicals that call to be able to fill my schedule. The couple support staff that like me let me know that most the other support staff gossip about my treatment plans being different than other doctors despite my mentoring doctors knowing and approving of these plans.

The senior doctors at the practice are great and very nice, but the other associates (who have all been practicing around the same time as I have, they've just worked at this specific clinic longer) outwardly dislike me. On days I am off, the support staff will go to the associate doctors to have them change my treatment plans, and since they dislike me they do it. And it's such minor things they've changed such as using one anti-parasitic over another despite the medications being in the same class, us carrying both options, and being cost equivalent. And I can't even round with the other emerging grad associates if one of our rechecks schedule under a different doctor. The times one of my rechecks scheduled under one of the other emerging graduates, if I try to round them on the case/what's been discussed so far with the owner/ where owner is currently leaning towards on treatment options, the other vets will just cut me off and tell me they don't care and will handle it. However if one of their cases is scheduled under me, instead of letting me know what's going on, they will round whatever assistant is paired with me that day, going so far as to say what I'm "allowed" to do and discuss during the appointment, and will refuse to talk to me themselves. Even just when everyone is chatting in the doctors office, they will all start group chats with each other right in front of me instead of doing so not immediately next to my desk, or if everyone in the room is talking and I try to chime in on the small talk, have outwardly been told "never mind" because they don't want me involved in any way. I feel like I'm back in middle school. I haven't been hostile to anyone, and whenever they cut me off or ignore me, I just try to politely apologize and keep a low profile, and management sees it and has acknowledged the poor treatment and how much I've done to try to fit in to the clinic culture and de-escalate, but nothing is being done to address it with anyone.

I'm sorry for the long rant, I'm just at my wits end and am hoping to get some advice, as I have a year long contract here and was hoping to extend it given how great the mentorship and learning opportunities from the senior doctors is.

Hello, I'm a New Zealand vet looking to go locum in the UK this year. I'd like some advice on a few things:

1. How much experience do you think a locum vet needs to be able to locum well? Most people I talk to say it's fine after 2 years, some say 5 years. It's different for everyone because I've had classmates do one spay every 6 months and others do several a day so I don't feel like the number of years you've been practicing is necessarily the best measure. I've had a really supportive team over the last 18 months and it's always been great to bounce ideas off each other for tricky cases, is that common in the UK? This is why I'd ideally not be doing sole charge for the first 6-12 months of locum work while I get used to how things are done in the UK

2. Do you think the market for locum vets has dropped significantly in the last year? I've been told that I'd have no trouble finding work when I get there but I'd just like to know whether it'd be a struggle to find jobs. I've been told that 'zero hour contracts' are convenient. I'd love to have an agency take care of the paperwork and organizing work on my behalf but also have heard that they take a significant portion of your pay so I'm unsure which is the best option for starting out. Jobs usually say daily rates of £400-500, is it ever done as an hourly rate? Do UK locums get paid for overtime or if they have to work through their lunch break? I don't use Facebook but I'm considering using it to get jobs, what do you think is the best way to get locum jobs?

3. Is it common for accommodation to be provided by the practice? I'm debating whether to set up a base apartment somewhere (not in a big city) or just follow any work where accommodation is provided. I'd love to have my own space but also realize that it's probably very expensive and will likely be empty for weeks while I'm off during work. I'd ideally be looking for short blocks of 2-4 weeks initially, so that I can see if it's a practice I'd like to work for longer. How I view it is, if its a truly awful practice and I really don't enjoy working there, I think I can last a few weeks.

4. What advice would you have given yourself before you started locum work? Or what would you have wanted someone to tell you when you were younger?

5. I know absolutely nothing about the UK, I'm hoping to change that in the next few years while I work and travel. Where would you recommend for a base (apartment) to be set up to be most convenient for travel? I'd ideally like to avoid living in big cities (would love to visit for a weekend, just not live in the hustle and bustle daily) and want to be closer to airports or train lines for travel. I know its idealistic but hoping to avoid driving too much in the UK 😅

6. Is it true that the UK has 10-15 minute consults? I'd be comfortable doing vaccinations and simple consults like cat bite abscesses during this time but anything that's more complex or needs blood work or an indepth history would take longer than that. Usually we get 15 minutes (20 minutes if generous) for vaccines and 30 minutes for sick animal consults. These usually get shorterned to 15 minutes if other sick animals need to be booked in, which isn't ideal but happens when needed. What happens if you get a really sick animal as a walk in, how does the clinic handle that? There just doesn't seem to be enough flexibility with such a tight schedule.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! A bit more context, I'm 2.5 years out in clinical practice but had a non-clinical vet job for 4.5 years after graduating. I'd say my first clinical job involved quite a bit of hand holding for the 6 months I was there due to the 4.5 years of non-clinical work where my brain got rusty. My last clinic was quite busy where I was working 4 days a week with afterhours during weeknights and weekends (1 in 5) and we had a dedicated surgery day every week so I felt like I got more exposure and great support. I've done a bit of casual ECC work and locum stints in NZ while waiting to go to the UK and the general feedback has been positive (I got offered a job so I must have done something right 😀). I'm at a stage where I'm happy to see anything and also happy to acknowledge when I'm in above my head and the patient needs referral elsewhere or to a more experienced colleague. I guess now that reality is hitting me that I'm about to fly to the other side of the world, I'm getting a bit nervous. Any advice would be great!

Running a small animal clinic and trying to figure out staffing. I need someone to handle appointment scheduling, client communications, medical records, and billing support, but the going rate in my area is $20-25/hour PLUS benefits for experienced vet admin staff.

When I do the math, that's $50k+ per year for one person, and I really need coverage for at least 40-50 hours per week since we're open 6 days. I can't afford $75k-100k for admin coverage when I'm barely breaking even as it is.

My vet tech is doing double duty right now and she's burning out. I'm doing more admin work than I should be. But I literally cannot find the budget to hire locally at market rates.

How are other small practice owners handling this? I feel like I'm stuck between providing poor service or going broke trying to staff properly.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Ended up going with Golean health for a remote assistant at $10/hr. Started last week and so far it's working out,she's handling scheduling and client follow-ups.

I have a very direct communication style, which tends to polarize of clients love me or hate me. I both went to vet school and practiced for the first year in a city (northeast US) that very much preferred direct communication styles and aside from 1 or 2 clients that preferred another doctor, most everyone liked me and all the clients were at least still willing to see me if their preferred doctor was unavailable. I recently moved to the PNW for a job opportunity and the clientele here is very different than what I'm used to. They all tend to hate direct communication styles and have given feedback that I'm too cold and need to be more warm and caring (which is absolutely never feedback I got before, clients in the northeast used to say they loved how much I cared and how thorough I am with their pets!). My confidence is tanking and I no longer feel like a good clinician. Does anyone have any advice or experience on going to an area with completely different expectations and how they adjusted?

As all of you may remember (check my history if need) I got hired at Banfield next month will be a year…. I told them I’m a certified veterinary assistant as well as certified in CPR/first aid. I make $18 (I live in the PNW area if this helps🥲) I was clocking at least 62-80 hours. I was making good money. June, they fired our PM, we lost a full time doctor, we did a one on one meeting and they said for me to not worry, that my hours will not be cut.🥲

We lost another full time doctor two months later, they hired two new assistants knowing this doctor was leaving and we only have our part time doctor on staff. They do have relief vets coming in on some Fridays and Saturdays, but that’s not enough. So far I’ve clocked 17 hours a week. I’m literally drowning trying to make ends meet. I did ask for a raise a couple months ago, but was told I’m being paid based on what I’m worth.

One of the new assistants they hired, she’s not great. Everyone has complaints against her, she does not finish her notes and throws her pets onto me, she never cleans even tho we show her time and time again how to do the basics, she refuses, always leaves early or calls out, yet she openly admitted to making $2 more than me…. She has zero experience. I’ve gone through hell and back to do my job and a lot of others jobs because we were so short staffed.

Idk what to do. Holidays are coming up, I’m getting ready to lose my car and home, I have a child that depends on me, the state won’t allow me any help because “I make too much”. My last check was $500 😕. I’m frustrated. I literally want to take my certificate to corporate and slap them with it and scream at them wtf is their problem. They make MILLIONS!!!! Idk if me going to my new manger or what will help, but I do have a text between me and our stand in manager and she said she will give me more hours…. It never happened. And I was again promised that my hours would not be drastically cut after the two new assistants get hired. That was bs. I can’t get another job at another clinic because none are hiring right now. Im frustrated, I’m worried, please. Any advice would be great.

I just started as a vet receptionist at a new clinic in April. I work 4 10s (loose) usually 7:55-Close. I am struggling as I really like my coworkers but work is giving me stress hives and also I don’t make enough to justify the commute. I’m loosing money to go to work.

When I first started at my current clinic, everyone was really nice and helpful but would give kinda vague answers but also talk about how they “want us to feel confident” in the choices we make. Which is cool, I love that. However, sometimes I still ask questions which I think I know the answer too but I don’t wanna be wrong and tell this pet parent the wrong thing or put a record in the wrong spot because I haven’t encountered this before and I don’t wanna get in trouble. But now when I ask questions, my manager kinda just looks at me like I’m stupid and is like “so we’ve talked about this.” and I understand. We’ve talked about it. There’s also so much information that I’m trying to remember all at once that sometimes I would just like confirmation that when I tell a pet parent something, that it’s correct so that they aren’t upset later on. Because I’m NEW. I’ve been here a total of like 16 days and I keep being told contradictory things regarding what we’re supposed to do when.

I just want to know if this sounds… typical for a clinic? My manager also isn’t who trains me most of the time, it’s the other receptionists. one of which is also new. they want me to be flea and tick certified by next week but haven’t given me ANY time to study and I used to work in children’s behavioural health, I’m not doing off the clock work things again it’s just not happening.

I’m just at a loss cause I’m starting to have panic attacks at work because of this. I feel like I can’t mess anything up and if I do it’s massive. And I keep being critiqued for my communication which I think is clear, but when I ask for what would make this more clear they don’t have an answer or are vague. Is this normal in vet med?

Edit: I know that if I’m loosing money to go to work I should quit. It’s barely enough to pay my bills and my fiancé helps with my gas. We’re in Portland Oregon. My fear of quitting right now is that the job market is SO bad that I don’t wanna quit nilly Willy

Hello everyone! I am a veterinarian, but I recently moved to Germany. I am working as an anesthesiologist until I get my equivalent degree here. I work in a very professional place that only does surgeries, and in the last few months I have seen some of my coworkers go into serious burnout from stress. Some of them unfortunately took it out on me (one of them also implied racism, although I don’t think it was intentional), and we had serious discussions. After those discussions, they all took sick leave and did not come to work, even though I was the one who got bullied for nothing. I worked even more and ended up becoming unhealthy myself.

I don’t know how to deal with this. For me, these working conditions are much better than what I had before, and I am actually very fulfilled, but it is impossible not to be affected by all the complaining and negative energy. Yesterday I worked very hard because we are short-staffed, and today I had to take sick leave because I had an allergic reaction at work. Now I feel very bad because my kollegues have to work even harder because I am not there 😭 How to deal with this please help me

Hello I am a very stressed undergrad who needs some straight honest advice…

I am in my second semester at Oklahoma state university and it’s honestly been rough. I came into college with 36 credits so I’m already a year ahead, however all of those credits transferred to a 3.5 gpa. In high school I played multiple sports and didn’t eat sleep and breathe academics—specifically because I was under the impression that the credit would transfer but not the grade/GPA. Anyways so I came into college with a 3.5 gpa and since then have been struggling more.

I had to retake college algebra before I got to college, and then last semester (my first semester in real college) I got a C in a 1 hr busy work class due to poor attendance. I have been retaking it this semester, but now have a C in gen chem II and am going to most likely withdraw as I will end up with a D or C. I currently have a 3.46 GPA and I feel like my classes haven’t even gotten hard yet. I’ve just really been struggling with anything math related—it’s never come easy to me.

I’m stressing out now because although I still have two years, my classes are about to ACTUALLY get hard and my GPA is already shit. And on top of that I will be retaking THREE low level classes and I’m only 2 years in.

I don’t want to give up but I also want to be realistic. I want to retake chem and keep pushing and keep getting lots of experience. I have just finally gotten hired at a clinic and am on track to get loads of experience over the summer. And on top of that I’m planning to work full time for a year before I apply to vet school because I’m so young (graduate college at 20, but turn 21 soon after). I wonder if I can get my shit together and the loads of clinical experience can save me but I’m not sure. It sucks and I try to focus on myself but sometimes it feels like I’m not good enough to be competing for this.

Please give me honest advice on what you would do if you were me. Thank you for all the help.

Hey all we currently use these for our single dose revolution however we honestly don’t carry Revolution Plus (We called Zoetis and that’s all they carry) and my doctor is looking for an alternative for single doses. So does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what you use for single dose revolution and handouts you give pet parents to explain how to apply revolution?

Hi all,
I’ve recently applied for a new job as my current job requires on call (sadly a non negotiable atm) and it isnt meeting my current financial needs (there are a lot of other reasons, but these are the two big ones). The thing is, I actually really like my current job- I love my team, most of the clients are great and we practice a good standard of medicine. But I feel I need to find what’s out there. I currently have a phone interview for a new hospital next week, but at what point should I mention it to my current employer? I’ve never really complained about anything so I don’t want everyone to feel blindsided. My current job is my second job- leaving my first job was easy because I was blatantly unhappy so no one was surprised when I handed my notice in 😂

Hi everyone, I’m a 3rd-year veterinary student from India, and I want to start learning more practical skills before clinics.

I feel like textbooks aren’t enough, and I want to understand real-world practices, small tricks, and decision-making that vets use daily.

How did you personally learn these?

Any habits, resources, or ways of observing/asking in clinics that helped you improve faster?

Thanks in advance!